Well hello there! I joined MobileRead last year when I was researching eReaders to see which would be right for me. I got a Kobo eReader from Borders (the original one with Bluetooth but not WiFi). Now I have an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4, and have several eReader apps (in order of preference, Stanza, Kobo, iBooks, Google, Kindle and Nook). The first four are compatible with VoiceOver on the iPhone: any book can be an audiobook. I use Calibre to manage my non-DRM EPUB library.

My Kobo is mainly used when the iOS devices are charging or when I want to lend e-books to someone who doesn’t have a convenient way to read them (like my 91-year-old father who has no idea how to use a computer, but has no problem pressing a big blue button).

So much for technology. As for what I read, it’s mainly science fiction and fantasy: I read to escape Mundania. Favorite authors include Tolkien, Lewis, Heinlein, Asimov, Weber, Pratchett and Lackey. Favorite books are The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, I Will Fear No Evil, the Foundation trilogy, the Honor Harrington novels, the Discworld novels (particularly Going Postal and Making Money), and the Valdemar stories. And Harry Potter. Mustn’t leave Rowling out!

The preceding is necessarily a partial list, since I’m over 50 and have been reading for myself since I was 5.

hello charlie - welcome. I do like your reading list - I love LOTR too - I was in New zealand when it was being filmed, and used to pass several of the sets every day. Helms Deep was in a quarry next to a main road!!

My advice is to give the kobo to your pop and let him read on that, the Kobo is know far and wide as the simplest reader available. Also sign him up for a local continuing education classes, teachers of these classes are typically very well trained in motivating seniors to learn to use information technology and how to bring the technoogy down to a level that your 91 year old pop could understand. After a set of classes I would sign him up for tech support with a company such as Geek Squad, they deal with people like your pop all of the time.

Fortuantely for me my pop is conversant in the information technology that he has at home, however is still afraid of it. His mother thought that the devil invented the technology and wouldn't touch the stuff.